Football

November 12, 1998

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The24th-ranked University of Miami Hurricanes(5-2, 3-1) held their final practice today before heading toPhiladelphia tomorrow for Saturday’s BIG EAST Conference game againstthe Temple Owls (2-7, 2-3). The Canes worked out for 90-minutesinshells at Greentree Practice Field and once again the focus was onTemple’s option offense.

“We are as well preparedfor the wishbone as we can be,” saidcoach Butch Davis. “It was good having a week off, it allowedus extratime to work on it. The problem is, as often as you practiceagainstit, there is no way you can execute it as fast as the opponent.Andwith Temple, they run so many variations that we needed the extra weekin order to work on the various looks and options.”

The Hurricanes enter Saturday’sgame in good health. Dan Morganhad his best practice of the week and will be at full speed.

Thesophomore linebacker has his left thumb in a soft-cast after havingascrew surgically inserted to repair a fracture. Davis also announcedthat cornerback Leonard Myers will return to the starting lineup.Myersmissed the last two starts at right corner after undergoing arthroscopicsurgery on October 13th to repair a torn miniscus. He did seeaction inthe Hurricanes last game on October 31st vs. Boston College.

Davis said his team is focusedand ready for Temple. “Our guyshave been real good at taking the season one game at a time.You onlyneed to read the paper every Sunday to see what happens when a teamisnot ready to play. We haven’t had enough success over the lastcoupleyears where we need to fight complacency. There is a lot leftfor us toaccomplish. We haven’t qualified for a bowl game and there isno reasonto assume that we will take anybody lightly.”

Kickoff Saturday is at 4:00.The game will be televised live inFlorida on SportsChannel.